Dear !*SALUTATION*! !*LAST_NAME*!,
The activities of the chamber will somewhat slow down during the month of July (when most of the Finns have their summer vacations), and first part of August (when the Japanese have theirs). But in June there's still a lot of activities, as you see from the below.
For those of you who are already planning your autumn calendar, note that we will have a Club Evening, a "welcome back from vacations" event on Wednesday 24 August at the Juniper Café & Bar at Grand Hyatt Tokyo.

The Danish Chamber of Commerce in Japan (DCCJ) invites members of FCCJ and other Nordic Chambers to a Business Luncheon, on June 16 where the guest speaker is Mr. Nobuyuki Idei, Chairman & Group CEO, SONY Corporation.
The topic of his presentation is: "The Globalization of SONY".
The presentation will be followed by a Q & A session. So please prepare some questions.

Date & Time:

Thursday, 16 June, 12:00-14:00 (registration starts at 11:30)

Venue:

The City Club of TokyoMAPPlace Canada B1F, 7-3-38 Akasaka, Minato-ku Tokyo

At our luncheon meeting in June we will have Ms. Tuula Hatainen, Minister of Education as our guest speaker. Minister Haatainen will speak about education in Finland and Finland's role in the education sector in EU. Finland has declared that themes of the Finnish EU presidency (in 2006) will be quality and equality in education.

20 June - Introduction to the Japanese Law of Protection of Personal Information

The Italian of Commerce in Japan invites members of other European Chambers to a breakfast meeting
on Monday, 20 June at the ANA Hotel. The title of the meeting is "Introduction to Japanese Law on the Protection of Personal Information" and the speaker is Mr. Osamu ITO, Attorney at Law-Asahi Koma Law Offices

The June edition of our printed newsletter, FCCJ NEWS, has been sent out to our members and related organizations.
This issue has a report from the Business Confidence Survey, the Finland National Day at the Aichi Expo, a column from our board member Tuomo Kuuppo (President of Stora Enso Japan K.K.), reports from our events and a member company presentation (Perlos Japan).
For more, and to download the pdf version of the newsletter, click link below.

Mr. Jukka Suomela, instrumental in founding the FCCJ and its board member 1999-2000, and long serving board member and chairman of FCCJ's predecessor, the Finnish Business Council, received the "Order of the Rising Sun, Golden Ray with Ribbon" on Monday in Helsinki from H.E., Ambassador Shigeo Kondo at the Ambassador's residence.
Mr. Suomela served in Tokyo on two occasions, 1986-1990 at Kansallis-Osake-Pankki's Tokyo Representative office and from 1996-2000 at Merita Representative Office (from 1997 Merita Nordbanken, which in 2001 became Nordea).
After returning to Finland he also server as board member and chairman of the Finnish-Japanese Chamber of Commerce.

News from Finland

UPM to acquire Russian timber company Chudovo
Finnish forest products company UPM is to acquire the possession of Russian timber company Chudovo. UPM is buying 40 per cent of Chudovo's capital stock from its Russian partner Novgorodlesprom for 12 million euros, which UPM will pay for in its own shares.
The full possession of Chudovo will give UPM new freedom in the development of the company, despite the fact that cooperation with its Russian partner prior to the acquisition has also worked well, stated division manager Harald Finne of UPM.
UPM has not made any firm decisions on the development of Chudovo, although there are many plans in the pipeline, confirmed Mr Finne.
Until now, UPM owned 60 per cent of Chudovo. Chudovo was one of the first joint Finnish-Russian ventures.

Eetu and his wife
Eetu from Laihia (for those of you who do not know the folk tales of Finland, people from Laihia are supposed to be very mean...)
and his wife Sylvi went to the air show in Kauhava every year. And every year Eetu would say, "Sylvi, I'd like to ride in that there airplane."
And every year Sylvi would say, "I know Eetu, but that airplane ride costs ten euros, and ten euros is ten euros, almost 60 mummonmarkka (Grandma's markka)."
One year Eetu and Sylvi went to the fair and Eetu said, "Sylvi, I'm 71 years old. If I don't ride that airplane this year I may never get another chance."
Sylvi replied, "Eetu, that there airplane ride costs ten euros, and ten euros is ten euros."
The pilot overheard them and said, "Folks, I'll make you a deal, I'll take you both up for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and not say one word, I won't charge you, but if you say one word it's ten euros."
Eetu and Sylvi agreed and up they went. The pilot did all kinds of twists and turns, rolls and dives, but not a word was heard. He did all his tricks over again, but still not a word. They landed and the pilot turned to Eetu, "By golly, I did everything I could think of to get you to yell out, but you didn't."
Eetu replied, "Well, I was gonna say something when Sylvi fell out, but ten euros is ten euros."

ABOUT THIS BULLETIN
This bulletin is published by the Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Japan (FCCJ) and distributed to over 580 recipients among its members and related organizations.
FCCJ was established in April 1999 to promote trade and economic exchange between Japan and Finland and has today 72 corporate members, 16 individual and one special member.